Interpersonal communication relies upon many cues and signals. Apart from the auditory signals provided by language very important information is transmitted via various visual signals. Facial expressions, hand signals, eye movements and the like may relay more information than the words themselves. If a picture can speak a thousand words a moving picture may speak many thousands of words per second.
Video telephony simultaneously presents to a contact visual and auditory data streams allowing each contact to see as well as hear their co-contact. Nevertheless, as important as visual signals are to interpersonal communication there has been strong market resistance to the acceptance of video telephony.
There may be a number of reasons for the market's reticence to adopt video telephony, in particular, until relatively recently; video screens connected to communication networks may not have been sufficiently available. However with the rise in use of mobile telephones, tablets, computers, smart televisions and the like, video display screens are becoming much more widespread. Many such communication devices provide the functionality of making video telephone calls; even so, video telephony is still not widely accepted.
One possible reason for the slow uptake of the technology may be the limited bandwidth of many communication devices. Live video streaming generally demands a high bandwidth; therefore in order to provide the video stream for a video telephone call over a limited bandwidth many service providers reduce the frame rate. This may result in a substandard disjointed or jerky video experience. Consequently, the video telephony functionality of communication systems does not provide a comfortable user experience and as a result is often ignored by the user.
Furthermore, the mobile phone has become an essential part of the modern era, used in all aspects of everyday life. As mobile phones are increasingly used as the primary telephone, mobile users may receive calls at inconvenient times; at work, at a meeting, family gathering, at the theater, while sleeping and much more. If the incoming call is not desired, the process of handling it is interruptive and distractive.
As such, phone call filtering is becoming a more common requirement of any communicating device. The basic functionality of filtering incoming calls and text messages is commonly available by specifying white lists of allowed contacts or blacklists for disallowed contacts. A wider scope of filtering may offer anonymous call rejection, priority ringing to help dealing with unwanted calls, dropping any call with a busy signal, or sending the contact to a voicemail. Additionally, calls may be rejected from certain prefixes or area codes, avoiding international calls or handling telemarketers. Call screening may let you know who's calling before you accept a call, as an additional feature, and much more. The functionality referred to hereinabove, may be available for mobile phones and landline phones alike, either through services of telephone companies or through applications incorporated on the device itself by handset manufacturers or as downloaded applications of other software vendors.
The media viewing experience is growing even more diverse with video content becoming available on various devices such as media renderers including television, personal computers, tablets, mobile communication devices, telephones, hand held devices and the like. In parallel, the social environment is changing, taking advantage of new emerging technologies and yielding a whole new world of experiences. Combining the digital media, specifically the television as a platform, with the social environment increases the demand for sharing digital content and views. The expectation of viewers is of uninterrupted viewing experience, and the disclosure herein relates to filtering the disturbing incoming calls.